Politics

Eager to shift the course of the government's financial sector bailout fund, President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats want to apply greater scrutiny and a more defined mission to the beleaguered $700 billion rescue program.

Energized by the prospects of a pro-labor president, House Democrats marked the first week of the new Congress Friday by pushing through two bills to help workers, particularly women, who are victims of pay discrimination.

The 247-171 roll call Friday by which the House passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, a bill that would reverse a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that made it more difficult to sue over past pay discrimination.

One thing President-elect Barack Obama won't be changing: the White House chef.

A federal appeals court said Friday it would not review the "enemy combatant" designation of detainees at Guantanomo Bay.

The Bush administration on Friday expressed concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, but officials blamed the militant Hamas movement for Palestinian suffering and said it was difficult for the Israeli military to avoid civilian casualties.

They must command their instruments, batons, headgear - and in one case synchronized lawn mowers - keeping in time and in tune as they follow new President Barack Obama through the January air from the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

Republicans who just four years ago boasted of nearing "permanent majority rule" now watch a dynamic leader move into the White House at the helm of a resurgent Democratic Party with new footholds in longtime Republican bastions.

Get ready for the in-law in chief.

A word of advice for anyone attending the inaugural balls scattered throughout the nation's capital on the night President-elect Barack Obama takes office - eat before you go.